


AM 2:55

by zuli



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: M/M, Soulmate AU, stray kids - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-13
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-08-22 23:32:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16607501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zuli/pseuds/zuli
Summary: Minho is an experienced time traveler, holding a piece of machinery that will have him hunted down until the day he dies. Jisung is an unsuspecting civilian living in a stable timeline, who coincidentally meets a god on the subway and is given the lost twin to the machinery Minho has safeguarded all his life. Suddenly, Jisung is on the run with Minho, with no idea where he'll end up.





	1. The Broken Clock

Jisung bolted down the stairs to the subway, vaulting over the turnstiles and sprinting away faster than the security guard could turn his head. People shuffled aside in alarm as he ran past them, sprinting down even more stairs and running onto the train. The doors closed seconds later, and he grabbed onto a railing as the train lurched forward. He rested his head on the plastic barrier between the entrances and the seats, catching his breath. Once his breathing had normalized he strolled over to an empty seat besides a young man wearing a long grey coat. He pulled the bread he had stolen from the market out of his pocket and began eating contentedly. 

The man sitting beside him turned to him and smiled. Jisung paused in his chewing to meet the stranger’s look with wide eyes. He had an interesting face, which looked pretty when he smiled. He was the kind of person who immediately grabbed your attention and held it, and if it had been a different time and day, Jisung would have been compelled to smile back. 

The man reached into his coat pocket and Jisung tensed. With a chuckle he tossed a heavy golden locket to Jisung, who instinctively caught it with one hand. 

“What’s this?” Jisung asked, his mouth half full of bread. 

“You look like you need it,” the man replied calmly. 

“Yeah but what is it?” Jisung clicked the button at the top of the pendant, and the golden face popped open, revealing the cracked face of an ornate but seemingly old watch. It was small enough that he could wear it as a necklace if he wanted to, but heavy enough to make him wonder if it could be real gold. 

“It is what it is,” the man replied. “And if anyone else knows what it is, I’d run before asking questions.” The man stood with a flourish of his coat. 

“Wait,” Jisung protested. “Don’t just dump your trash on me. What do you mean ‘if anyone else knows what it is?’”

The boy nodded towards the golden watch. “Press it once to open it. Press it three times to send you away. Twice to bring you back.” He turned with a very final swoosh and casually walked away down the corridor, walking slowly towards the wall until he reached the end of the car, then, without any of the flashes of light or popping sound Jisung might have expected, he disappeared into thin air. Jisung stared at the emptiness and took a very confused bite out of his bread. The two other people sharing the subway car seemed entirely unconcerned, and Jisung didn’t even know how to begin going about worrying about what he had just seen, so he instead worried about the tangible thing he held in his palm. His first instinct was obviously to press the button three times, but fear held him back. He was afraid both that nothing would happen at all, and the mystery would end in disappointment, or that he’d summon some demon who would ask him to make a deal for his soul or something, and he’d have to regret everything he’d just done. 

He closed the watch and dropped it into his pocket, wondering if he could get a good price for it. 

When he got off the train, he made his way home. It was always a casual affair, walking home. It was late afternoon, the weather was nice, and he liked the walk through the town. He loved having this walk to think by himself. 

He pulled out the watch again. He paused, turning it over and over in his hands. Nothing would really happen, right?

He gripped the watch tightly in his hand, and clicked the button three times in quick succession, screwing his eyes shut and holding the small object out at arm's length. When he didn’t blow up on the spot, he slowly opened his eyes. Nothing seemed to have changed. He was still on the road, with an orchard to his left, a rice field to his right. Ahead of him was the sprawl of the small country town where he’d grown up. He released the breath he’d been holding in, and frowned at the watch. What had that guy been on that he told him all that shit? He had known deep down that it was going to turn out this way, but he was still disappointed. He needed something mysterious like a stranger’s magic watch to break him out of the seemingly endless repeating cycle of his life. 

He dropped the watch back into his pocket and continued towards his home in the growing dusk. It wasn’t until he was almost within the boundary of the town that something started to feel...off. The paint on the walls of the houses at the edge of town looked duller than it had earlier...a roof he had sworn was green looked blue. The dog that usually barked at him from the second house on the left was silent. 

He was probably imagining it. He’d convinced himself that something weird had to happen, and now he was imagining it. It was like a placebo effect. But it was odd how there were no people around…

With a sudden clatter of footsteps, Jisung was pushed against a wall by the collision of a fast moving body. His scream was cut off by the person shoving a hand over his mouth. The person now rummaging through his pockets was a boy about the same height as him, with dark brown hair, a sharp nose and big, pretty eyes. The boy pulled out the watch and held it up before Jisung’s eyes.

“Where’d you get this?” he hissed.

“Huh?”

“Who gave this to you?”

Jisung met his intense gaze. The boy sighed in frustration. “Was it Woojin?”

“Who?” Jisung asked in a shrill voice, becoming more confused and afraid with every passing second.

The boy rolled his eyes, clearly annoyed by Jisung’s lack of knowledge. “A guy with brown, kinda wavy hair. He has a cute smile. Long grey coat?”

Jisung blinked. “Yeah, actually. Do you know who he is?”

“Some people call him a god, some call him a demon. Whatever he is, I don’t care. As long as he doesn’t mess with me too much, I’m good.”

Footsteps echoed from behind the boy’s back.

“Come on, we have to go.” He grabbed Jisung’s hand, but Jisung resisted firmly. The boy’s eyes darted all around them.

“Wait, who are you? Where are we going?”

“There’s no time to explain.” He tugged his hand roughly. Jisung resisted again. The boy hissed through clenched teeth and pulled a silver chain hanging around his neck out from under his shirt. He clicked the silver button, and the face of a small, cracked clock was revealed. “Trust me now, talk later. I promise you, if you keep standing here, you’ll be shot on sight.”

The boy shoved the golden watch back into Jisung’s pocket, and then turned and ran, and this time, Jisung let the firm hand pull him into a sprint, away from the unknown danger following them.


	2. The Time Traveler

Jisung was pushed up a narrow set of stairs and onto an Adobe style patio. The boy pushed him into a crouch and pressed his back against the wall. With his eyes closed, he breathed heavily. Jisung looked at him as he did, hoping that looking at him might allow him to glean some information as to who he could possibly be.   
Fast footsteps rang from the alley now below them, and the hushed voices of men buzzed, the words indistinguishable, in Jisung’s ears. The footsteps passed in and out of hearing range a few times, before they were left in a long stretch of silence, where the only measure of time was the pounding in Jisung’s heart and the ragged breath of the boy beside him. 

After it felt like Jisung’s heart had pounded out a full movement of a nocturne, the boy leaned forward, opening his eyes. 

“What’s your name?” He asked, his voice soft.  
Jisung blinked at the sudden change. “Jisung,” he said. The boy smiled, and the rhythm of Jisung’s heart halted slightly. 

“I’m Minho,” the boy said with a brisk nod. 

“Who were...who was chasing you? Or us, I guess?”

Minho shrugged. “Agents from the government. I got a little too cocky in town and they spotted me. It’s a shame, but I got some good exercise.”

“Do they want the watch?” Jisung asked, glancing at the gleam of silver showing over Minho’s collar. 

“At least you’re smart,” Minho said with a grin. “Yup. You taking that watch means you’re gonna have to get used to running. A lot. Once the agents figure out you’re a time traveler, they’ll get you on file and you’ll be hunted on sight anywhere you go.”

“A time traveler?” Jisung asked, his voice coming out as a squeak. 

Minho sat motionless, his expression blank. “...Woojin didn’t tell you that?”

“He didn’t tell me anything,” Jisung said, pulling the watch out of his pocket and looking at it closer. 

“I thought he would have told you. Then again, I didn’t get mine from him. I only met him a couple times, and all he wanted to do was tell me I wasn’t meant to have the watch.” Minho rolled his eyes like he was telling some old, tedious story. “I’ve told him to leave me alone and go back to demon-ing, or whatever it is he does. But he still pops up here and there. I thought if he gave you the other one, he’d tell you to temper me or something.”

“All he said was to run if anyone knew what it was. Hopefully he was referring to the agents and not to you.” 

Minho laughed. “He probably meant both, honestly. But I’ve already swept you off your feet, so what can you do?” Minho leaned forward, rather suddenly, and grabbed the watch from Jisung’s hand. He gently placed the chain around Jisung’s neck, pulling at the collar of his shirt and tucking the watch beneath it. He patted Jisung’s chest and smiled with satisfaction, seemingly unconcerned by Jisung’s suddenly tense posture.

“I guess you’ll need a place to sleep.” Minho stood up, stretching his back. “Come back with me, I’ll tell you about the gig you’ve gotten yourself mixed up in.”

Jisung nodded and took Minho’s hand.


	3. The Mark

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn’t sleep so...here’s some more

Jisung woke to the moon glowing on his face. The pale blue blanket Minho had given to him was tangled around his feet, and his arm lolled off the side of the couch. He sat up, looking around in the dark. He wasn’t quite sure why he had woken up. He guessed it must have been something he heard, either Minho walking around or the appearance of another strange, coated man, or worst case, the government agents coming to take them away. 

Luckily, his eyes fell on the knowing smile of the man he wanted to see the most. 

“Hey!” He sat up straighter. Woojin came forward and sat in a chair beside the couch. 

“So, you found him,” he said casually. 

“Was I not meant to?” Jisung asked. 

Woojin cocked his head to the side. “Well, I wouldn’t necessarily say that. I didn’t particularly want you to find him, nor did I want you to find him so early on, but as things turned out, I’m glad he was there.”

Jisung smiled. “Me too.”

Woojin seemed like he wasn’t going to say anything else after that, and simply sat and stared at Jisung, who squirmed uncomfortably. 

“So, why did you come here?”

“I came to tell you something,” Woojin replied. 

Jisung sighed. “Maybe you could have started by saying that,” he said, barely loud enough to hear. 

“There’s a reason I gave you the watch. There’s a special mark on every human which most people can’t see. I can see them, of course, and yours caught my eye. You see, every watch is inscribed with three letters on the back, and those three letters match the mark on the watch’s owner. I recognized your three letters when I saw you on the train. They matched the letters on the watch, meaning you could be the owner. If you were the owner, you would be able to see me, and, as you know, you did. So I returned your watch to you.”

Jisung blinked. “So...the watch was mine all along?”

“You might not have known it, but yes.”

“What do the letters mean?”

Woojin nodded to the full length mirror in the corner of the room. 

“You can see your mark now. Once your watch comes into your possession, the letters become visible to the human eye. They’re just below your left collarbone.”

Jisung crossed the mirror, pulling down the collar of his shirt to see what looked like small tattoo under his collarbone. The letters read ‘LMH.’ 

“Every watch has a mate. Your watch always knows where that other watch is. The two watches together possess greater power than they do apart, and the two people are, put simply, soulmates. However, just because someone is your soulmate doesn’t necessarily mean you are theirs. And most of the time, time travelers actually have soulmates who are just ordinary people. When time first began and the gods made time travelers to keep order, things were simpler. Now there’s a lot more people and fewer time travelers among them. Time itself sort of muddled the whole thing up.”

Jisung turned around to face Woojin again, his eyes wide now. “Soulmates aren’t...real though.” His voice sounded like a whisper. 

“For time travelers they are. Most people can never see their marks, and so never know who their soulmate is. Most of them get along just fine and fall in love and live happily. Some of them end up actually finding their soulmates. However, traveling in time can get you...confused. The soulmate acts as a grounding mechanism to the time traveler. If the soulmate is a fellow time traveler, they can travel together and anchor each other. If the soulmate is a normal person, they have someone to return to. It keeps the human mind from unraveling.”

“What do I do when I find this person?”

The lights turned on, nearly blinding Jisung, and Woojin disappeared from the chair. Jisung blinked, squinting at Minho, who stood in the doorway, looking at Jisung peculiarly. 

“Talking to yourself?” He asked. 

“No,” Jisung said, rubbing his eyes. 

Minho made a face and walked across the room to the refrigerator in the corner. He pulled out a Tupperware of cold ramen and started eating it, leaning on the counter. 

“You want some?” He asked, noticing Jisung looking at him. 

“No thanks,” Jisung said, quickly returning to his couch. He sat down and looked purposefully at the floor. 

“Uh, Minho?” Jisung looked up again. Minho looked at him expectantly. “What’s your last name?”

“Lee,” Minho said. He turned and poured himself a glass of juice, which was good because Jisung new he probably looked like he had just witnessed a car crash. He pulled the clock out from under his shirt and looked at the curly initials carved on the back. His heart raced, and he returned the clock to its safe position between his shirt and his chest.


End file.
